An Eternity to Perish
by AlenaChen
Summary: Ace meets a man that he seems to know somehow and yet he has forgotten about. Marco is on a search for his long lost lover, but there is a dreadful secret that does not allow him to get too close to him. And yet they meet. And everything spirals into chaos. [Marco X Ace; Reincarnation!AU]
1. There Were Once Just Memories

**I did not plan on posting this just yet, but I'll do it anyway. A new multi chapter MarcoAce story, because I can. I like Reincarnation!AUs so I wanted to write my own. I mean, I think I've uploaded a OS with the theme before? But this is going to be a little longer.**

**But don't worry, I wont abandon my other stories, I will definitelly finish GotP very soonish. I'm working on the next chapters already, I just need something else in-between :).**

**Now, if you enjoy this, it would be very kind of you to leave a review. Either way, here's the first chapter...**

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><p><strong>An Eternity to Perish<strong>

_Chapter 1: _There Were Once Just Memories…

The first time he remembered seeing the stranger, was on a random street in town. Ace had still been very little, although he could not really remember his exact age during that time.

But it must have been one of his oldest childhood memories. And he had always thought it weird how something so insignificant as a random encounter on the street had managed to stay in his memories for so long, when he had forgotten so many other nice things that had happened around the same time, which he could now only recall by looking at the pictures his mother used to take of him. Like the one time they went to the amusement park. Or their trip to the huge zoo of the town. Those could have all been fond childhood memories, but he could barely recall any of it now.

But of this one time he randomly met that stranger on the street – just a passing-by – he had very vivid and detailed memories.

At that day he had been walking alongside his mother. He had not know where they were going and probably, as the child he had been, had not cared about it either. But she had been holding his hand and at one moment her grip around his fingers had tightened ever so slightly as if she had sensed something dangerous and her mother instincts had told her to hold one to him more firmly.

He remembered looking up to her in his innocent confusion, but she had only been staring at something that had been in front of them and ignored him.

Ace had followed her glance to the sidewalk in front of them and that had marked the exact moment when he had first seen him.

It had been a strange, short meeting. Usually all those details he did still remember about it now should have been lost over all this time. But nonetheless he still remembered how the man looked like as if it had only been a minute ago that he had last seen him and definitely not through the eyes of a small child.

The first thing that struck him had been the man's size. Maybe he had simply seemed big, because Ace had been so small back then. But he had felt as if the man had been towering over him in a threating manner.

The next thing he remembered had been the man's unusual clothes. He was wearing sandals and short, blue trousers. Wrapped around one of his legs was some sort of white ornament object. He further wore a blue sash around his hips in which lay, half hidden, a belt that was adorned by even more, golden, ornaments.

But the most striking had been the purple shirt the man wore openly, presenting a large, blue tattoo on his chest that seemed to be a cross with some sort of crescent shape running through its middle.

He had felt threatened by the man back then at first, yes. But that was only because the man's eyes had solely rested on him for the entirety their short meeting had lasted.

But then all of a sudden, the man's lips had curled up into a warm and gentle smile that was so unlike his threatening appearance that Ace had felt at ease at once.

Seconds later they had passed him and that had concluded his first meeting with the man.

In his memories he had simply been a stranger he could remember way too vividly without any apparent reason. He never thought about it much though and one day simply concluded that it must have been so memorable because it had been strange to him that someone would stare at him like that while he had been with his mother. When usually she was the one to get all the attention with her long and beautiful strawberry-colored hair and the freckles that adorned her face.

The second time he saw the stranger was shortly after his mother had died. Ace had taken it very badly. Just like anyone would. He had been eighteen, at least old enough to live alone from then on. But what sort of comfort was that supposed to be? He had wanted his mother back. He had wanted her to be alive again. That had been all he had wanted. But of course nothing like that had happened. Nothing like that had even remotely been possible.

So, to somehow suppress the pain in a very lame attempt, he went to visit a club in one of the worse parts of their town. It was stupid really, but he had drunken and drunken and yet the hollow feeling in his chest just had not wanted to go away.

The only thing that had happened was that he had started to feel light-headed and sick. Of course he had never expected anything else, giving that he had never been one to drink much before.

But it had been then that someone approached him. The man had been completely drunken himself. Ace had been unable to understand much of what the man had been saying, because the man had been slurring his words and Ace's hearing was deafened by the noises around him and his own, poor state. But when the man got up, grabbed Ace's arm and dragged him with him outside the building Ace followed him without hesitation.

What did it matter anyway? Anything that was going to distract him from the pain and emptiness he was feeling back then had been a welcome distraction after all. They did not go far from the club. The man had dragged him into the nearest alley and had roughly pushed him against the wall there.

Then he had slowly flicked his tongue over his lips and starred at Ace in a very lewd manner and it was probably in that moment when Ace first understood what was actually going on and he had started to panic for the first time.

But before he had been able to do or say anything at all, the man before him had been pulled away from him and after a loud cracking noise sounded through the night, the man had scurried out of the alley, muttering wild insults that Ace had only been able to hear for a moment.

Then he had looked up. Scared at first, but that fear had quickly disappeared when he had looked into the deep, brown eyes of the man he knew from his weird childhood memory that now stood before him and looked at him worriedly. The next thing he remembered was the man's deep, somehow familiar sounding voice saying his name. Saying it like a name he had longed to say for what might have been an eternity.

"Ace." The man had said, worried, yes, but somehow he had even sounded happy, too.

Ace's eyes had widened. Scared, he had thought. He was scared. It had all been so unreal. Why was there such a painful, lonely and devastated feeling spreading through his body like wildfire at that moment? Why did looking into the depths of this man's eyes feel so familiar? Why was there so… so much pain visible in them?

Ace's hand had reached out all on its own. There was a lump forming in his throat that he just couldn't get past to speak out even a single word. But he had this irrepressible desire to run his fingers over this man's cheeks. To comfort him. To tell him that everything was going to be fine. Because it was almost like the tormenting feelings he had to endure right at that moment were not his own and he had never been meant to feel them in the first place.

The man however had caught Ace's hand with his own before the youth had ever been able to touch him.

"What are you doing here?" He had asked, his voice soft, yet stern and still so worried. "I'll drive you home." He had said and Ace knew it was not an offer. It was almost an order and there was nothing he could say against it.

He never understood why he just went with that stranger, but somehow he had felt safe and protected by his side. He had been calm, almost a little happy, if the recent death of his mother had not still been heavy on his mind.

The man had never asked why Ace had been at that place. He had never asked why he had gone with that man from the club. He had never asked what was bothering Ace.

And Ace had never dared to ask any questions either. He had only wondered how the man knew his name, how he had known where Ace lived without asking him. Why he had looked at him as if they had already known each other for a long time. Yet somehow, Ace though, he wouldn't have received an answer anyway, even if he had dared to ask.

He has had his own theories though. Maybe the man was a friend of his mother, maybe even a past lover of hers and that was why he had watched over him. He had almost been inclined to ask him and to pour his heart out about his mother's death, too. But somehow the silence between them as they drove had felt too thick for any words to cut through and so, in the end, he had said nothing at all.

Yet, the strangest part of his memories of that day were still to come. And afterwards Ace had never been sure if it had all been real or not. After all he was almost sure that something like that could never have really happened.

He had felt dizzy and sleepy, the alcohol still heavily clogging up his mind. The man had supported him as they were making their way up the stairs to the door and he had asked Ace for the key to open it.

Once they had been inside the man had helped him to sit down on the couch. He had brought him a glass of water and then just stood there silently as Ace had taken a sip of it before putting it away.

Ace barely remembered what had happened afterwards, but he still had blurry memories of the man crouching down in front of him. He had said something.

"…miss you… so much…" Ace had barely been able to hear the whispered words. He had barely been able to feel the man's fingers lightly and gently stroking his cheek. Almost like the touch of a ghost. He had seen his eyes drawing nearer, the saddest eyes in the whole world and then eyelids fluttering shut as lips suddenly brushed against his own. And even that kiss had been almost… like the touch of a ghost.

He should have been afraid then. Being alone in his house with a stranger that had just kissed him. He should have been afraid.

But he had not been afraid. Instead, his eyes had widened and all of a sudden there were images flooding his head, blurs of memories that were not his own. Could not be his own.

And then there was one thing that stood out of all of it. One tiny, little thing that found its way onto the tip of his tongue.

And as he spoke it, it had felt so unreal, so wrong and yet, somehow, right.

"Marco…"

A mere whisper. A name. Something he seemed to have long forgotten. Something he had not been supposed to remember.

What had happened afterwards, Ace could not remember. Only that his vision had blurred and that the man had vanished somehow. Almost like a ghost, Ace had thought. And in his drunken state he had fallen asleep then, right there on the couch. And when he had woken up later that day he had thought that everything that had happened the night before had been nothing but a dream.

Nothing, but a dream.


	2. But Then There was Reality

TrafalgarLawXKikoku: **Thank you ._.; I should not like making him suffer so much and yet... I do. OTL****  
><strong>

sam-free15: **Thank you, I will ^w^**

XxFire-PhoenixX: **Yes, I suppose he did :).**

Imperial Mint: **Thank you ^o^!**

Jumpingbeans480: **Thank you! So do I. :D**

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><p><strong>An Eternity to Perish<strong>

_Chapter 2: …But Then There was Reality_

Half a year later Ace had almost forgotten about the encounter with that strange man. It had all been so surreal and weird. Ace had told a few friends about it, but most of them had agreed that he must have been so drunk that he had imagined it all.

And maybe that had really been what had happened. Maybe he had just hoped that there was someone who had wanted to take care of him after everything that had happened. But in the end he had to accept the fact that he was on his own now.

But a few things had just simply stayed unclear. If that Marco person had not been real, who was it that had saved him from that pervert at the bar? Or had he imagined that as well? And how had he gotten home then? Maybe he had taken a taxi or the bus? Doubtful.

But if that person had been real, how had he known his name? How had he known where he lived? How did Ace know _that person's_ name?

In the end nothing really made any sense and the whole incident remained a mystery. But he did not really have much time to dwell on it.

Shortly after his mother had died he had to move out of their house. Luckily his parents had not been exactly poor, so he had been able to afford a small flat for himself without having to worry about working beside school, or he probably would have needed to quit anyway.

At least his maybe-encounter with that stranger had made him feel more calmly. Although he could not explain why that was, somehow he had felt more at ease after that night.

That's why he had managed to finish school even after everything that had happened. He had thrown himself completely into it. The work had distracted him, as well. At least accomplishing something had felt good, too, somehow. And when he had been accepted at his preferred university he had been thrilled.

But somehow even now, when his life was finally taking a turn for the better and when he had decided that his encounter with that man must have been nothing but a dream, he sometimes caught himself still thinking about him.

And the strangest thing was that sometimes, when he was asleep, he found himself dreaming about the man he had called Marco. And the dreams made no sense at all. Sometimes they were about the sea. And it was beautiful and vast and it made him feel so free that sometimes he doubted that his dreams were really just dreams.

And sometimes he dreamed that he was kneeling at the edge of a cliff and before him stretched a battlefield that went on for so long that he could not see anything beyond it. From those dreams he often awoke panicking. With his heart racing and tears rolling over his cheeks and a feeling of dread that made him feel more uneasy than he had ever felt before.

And in all those dreams, Marco was present. Sometimes looking at him like he was the most important thing in the world, with a love reflecting in his eyes that Ace could not possibly understand. And sometimes with such fear and sadness like he had just lost everything that had ever been important to him.

But those at least, were really just dreams. And nothing about them was real. That's why he simply shrugged it off as a side effect of all the stress he had had lately.

But at his first day of university he was about to understand that nothing about these dreams was absolutely unreal.

His first lecture had been exciting and he had met people he actually liked and could talk to. But in their lunch hour he had to excuse himself, because there was something he still had to do. Just fetching some forms he still had to fill out.

But as he reached the correct door he realized that according to the office hours that were printed on a sheet of paper that was glued to the door, the office was currently not occupied.

Ace shrugged his shoulders and knocked on the door anyway.

But there was no reply.

He looked behind himself and then down the corridor to his left and right to check of there was anyone he could ask about it, but he was seemingly alone.

Well, he really did not want to come back here tomorrow, so without further thinking about it, he reached out with his hand to try and see if the door I front of him was locked or open.

And to his surprise the door was actually open.

He entered the room slowly.

"Sorry, but there's currently no one here to –" A harsh, male voice started to say and then abruptly stopped as Ace stepped into the room.

Ace startled and stopped in his movement. "Ah, I'm s-sorry, the door was open and I just…" He was about to leave again, suddenly feeling completely embarrassed for simply entering the room, when he looked up to check who he was currently talking to.

When he realized who was in front of him, he was so shocked that for a moment he simply stood there, eyes wide open and his mouth gaping.

"Marco…?" He finally said slowly and quietly. His hand left the door handle and the door closed automatically behind him.

For a moment there was an unpleasant silence between them.

Then the man behind the desk seemingly recovered himself and replied. "Who?" He asked, but his voice was too high and Ace could see that he was just as surprised to see him as he was.

This man who was standing there with a stack of papers in his hands was most definitely, without a doubt the man from his dreams. The man who had saved him that one night when his mother had died. The man he had once encountered as a kid.

His face looked completely the same and he still had that very distinct hairstyle. But he was not wearing his weird clothes anymore. Instead he was wearing a plain, black suit and glasses. He did look different, somehow. But Ace was completely sure that this was the man. It had to be him.

"It's you, right? You're Marco?" He started to blurt out a stream of questions. "Don't you remember me? From half a year ago, at that bar? You drove me home, remember?" He was almost tumbling over his own words, not really understanding himself why he felt this excited.

"You must be confusing something." The man said dryly. "I don't know you."

Disappointment spread through Ace like a wildfire. The man must be lying, he thought. He probably had not expected to meet him here and he did not want to talk to him.

Who was this man, though? Why would he deny knowing him? Especially after helping him out like that half a year ago. There was something fishy about this whole situation, but Ace could just not put his finger on what exactly it was.

"But just now, it seemed like you knew me when I came in here." He tried again.

The man looked him over once more and thought about it for a moment. "I don't." He finally stated plainly. And then, putting his papers down on the desk in front of him, he went over to where Ace was and tried to lead him to the door.

"Now, if you would please come back during the office hours. I would gladly help you out, but I was just here to collect some documents. The people who normally work here are not in on Mondays I'm afraid." He explained matter-of-factly as he opened the door for Ace and waited for him to leave.

Ace stepped through the doorway, somehow feeling completely defeated. Was he really wrong? Although he had seen this man so often in his dreams, could there really be someone that just simply looked like him and nothing more?

Before the door closed behind him he turned around once more, looking the man before him directly in the eye. The same deep, brown eyes he had looked into that night, he thought.

"But you kissed me." Ace finally said, his voice sounding almost desperate.

The man was startled for a moment, but he recovered quickly. "Sorry." He said and he almost really sounded like he was apologizing. "But it's not me you are looking for."

And then he closed the door.

Ace starred at it for a long time. Part of him hoping that the man would open it any moment to tell him that he was just fooling around with him and another part of him was simply too petrified to move even an inch from where he was.

Was he really wrong? Was the man who had saved him truly not real in the end? Maybe, when he had been a kid, he had seen this man on the street. And somehow, when his mother had died and he had been dead drunk, he had projected his wish, his hope for someone who was there for him, onto this childhood memory and he had made this man his savior. But in the end it had all just happened in his head. None of it had ever been real.

But then why could he not shake the feeling that the man just now had recognized him? And yet, why would he act like he did not know him? Okay, maybe their encounter had not been the most favorable, but Ace would have liked to at least thank him for what he had done for him.

And while he stood there he, completely absent-mindedly, touched his fingertips to his cheeks and he was almost startled when he found that he was suddenly crying.

He remembered his dreams. The one with the battlefield. He remembered the man calling his name so desperately above all the noises of the raging war.

He should not act like he did not know him. It was not fair. Who else but this man was able to explain to him what all of this meant? Who else could tell him why he was feeling the way he was and dreaming those weird things that felt so frighteningly real if not the man who appeared in almost all of his dreams?

…

When Marco had closed the door behind him, he pressed his back against it, his lips escaping a deep breath he had not realized he was holding in.

He had definitely not expected to meet him here of all places.

It was good that, apart from that one night, Ace had probably not remembered anything else.

He felt a light sting at the thought, part of him wishing that Ace would remember and yet another part of him scolding himself for even thinking that when he, himself knew best what would happen _if_ Ace actually did remember.

He had to stay out of Ace's way from now on. He could no longer be careless like this. Every meeting was a risk he could not take.

After all he had sworn to protect Ace. No matter the consequences for himself.


End file.
